The first day of the Masters Santiago Swiss Stage wrapped up with NRG NRG North America Rank #1 keiko Georgio Sanassy brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold downing Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #1 WsLeo Huang Pinwei (黄品维) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) NoMan James Man Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) 2-0.

The series opened on NRG's pick of Haven, which it won 13-2, and on XLG's pick of Abyss, which NRG won 13-10.

The match marked yet another struggle on the international stage for Xi Lai, which has been one of China's strongest teams since its Ascension win in 2024. XLG showed signs of being disoriented and struggled to break down NRG's concise approach to the game.

Play opened on NRG's pick of Haven, which has been one of the reigning world champs' stronger maps over the past year. Both teams went with the Omen-Viper, Killjoy-Sova comp, with their respective Duelists on Neon.

The series started in a show of absolute dominance for NRG. A 10-2 start was highlighted by NRG playing its signature style, giving little opportunity for the defending XLG to pick off players. The compact and patient approach garnered a 10-2 advantage in first bloods for NRG as well.

Four of mada 's flashier kills.

Post-plant came easily for NRG, too. keiko 's Snake Bite and skuba 's Nanoswarms denied defuses by way of a molly, while frequent numbers advantages meant a late wrap or a Shrouded Step from IGL Ethan could put the attacking players in unexpected positions.

NRG went nearly perfect on pistol rounds in the series, which meant that its 10-2 halftime advantage was soon converted into an easy 13-2 win.

While Haven hasn't quite been a strong point in Xi Lai's map pool to start 2026, its map pick of Abyss has. The team went 2-1 on the map through China Kickoff, with a pair of dominant 13-6 wins and a narrow 16-14 loss. Meanwhile, NRG was 3-0 on the map, only ever dropping as many as eight rounds on it through Americas Kickoff.

XLG went with the famed mosquito comp pairing of Yoru and Waylay with two orb Controllers in Astra and Omen, while NRG stuck with its usual Tejo-Sova, Omen-Viper comp with mada as the solo Waylay. While having the ability to flex into double-Duelist comps, NRG appeared to be more than comfortable with this approach early on.

NRG claimed its third pistol of the series to start the map, and once again threatened to snowball. While XLG managed to shut down a would-be bonus round, interventions from head coach hvoya did little to slow down the momentum of the NRG attack. With the score at 7-1, NRG looked poised to run away with yet another dominant map. With its back against the wall, XLG leaned on some serious heroics from happywei to claim two thrifty rounds in the last four rounds of the half to make the score a more manageable 9-3.

Ethan takes down two to secure the 9-3 lead.

The patience and set play execution of NRG played well against Xi Lai's attempts at playing proactively, but as the teams switched sides, XLG kicked into second gear. After picking up its first pistol of the series, Xi Lai looked to put NRG on the back foot, going on a run of their own by winning five of the opening six rounds to start.

XLG looked good in its attack, getting into winning positions and managing to make NRG's delay-heavy comp look shaky, but slipped up in moments that looked unlosable. From 10-8, NRG claimed two straight rounds to reach match point, and converted it three rounds later.

After having a quieter Kickoff, keiko had what could be classed as his breakout game with NRG, logging series-high marks with a 1.40 rating and 35 kills, including a 5-1 record in first duels. mada continued to wreak havoc, opening up 14 gunfights and winning seven of them as part of a 29/26 scoreline. Rarga 's team-high 28 kills were not enough for XLG, nor was happywei's team-high 0.98 rating.

Up next

NRG moves on to the group of 1-0 teams in the Swiss Stage, joining Gentle Mates Gentle Mates Europe Rank #7 starxo Patryk Kopczynski bipo Taranvir Singh marteen Martin Pátek GLYPH Conner Garcia Minny Patrik Hušek , and awaiting tomorrow's pair of games to conclude before the next stage's draw. Meanwhile, XLG will join fellow regional squad EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #2 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) cb Wang Qingchuan (王庆川) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) in the pool of 0-1 teams, now just one defeat away from elimination.

VCT Masters Santiago will continue with the following matches: